Newsboys Concert (and giveaway)

A few months ago our local Christian radio station announced that the Newsboys would be coming to city close to where we live (remember this is Maine - close is a relative term - the city is just over an hour away). Knowing that the Newsboys were one of hubby's favorite bands I sort of hinted it would be neat to go.

A few days after the tickets went on sale I received an e-mail from hubby telling me to save the date of October 10th - the day of the concert! Woo-hoo!!! It's been at least 4-5 years since we had been to a concert & I was very much looking forward to going to this one. I asked him how our seats were & I was told they were in the "nosebleed" section. That's okay, we'd at least get to see them sing.

Then the tickets arrived. Did I ever mention my hubby likes to pull my leg a lot? He completely splurged on the "Gold Member" tickets which not only included floor seats but also entry in to a pre-concert meet & greet with the Newboys and a CD. Oh.my.gosh! So cool.

After making sure my MIL was good to go to watch the boys (she even kept them overnight!), we headed out for a date night - our first in I don't know how long.

me & the hubby at the concert

We spent the morning running hither & yon - at least it felt like that. Hubby took our youngest, J5, to an AWANA outing (photos later). My MIL took N8 to his soccer game. And B13 & I went to clean hubby's grandma's house. I do this every week.

Hubby & I then headed out to Augusta for an evening of adult time. We had an early dinner at Longhorn's. (Yum!!!) and then walked around Dick's Sporting Goods for a bit. It was close & we had the time. Kid-free shopping?? Yeah!

We arrived at the concert venue about 10 minutes before the doors opened. We were ushered in to a holding room for the Meet & Greet & sat there for only about 10 minutes or so. Then we were herded down the hall (yes, I felt a bit like cattle being moved) to meet the band. As we walked through the door we were each handed our CD - Go Remixed. The one thing I discovered after the fact...the Newsboys have been around a long time and the band members have changed a lot! In fact, the CD that was signed? Only one of the band members pictured is still in the band - Duncan Phillips who plays drums. Michael Tait of dcTalk is the newest lead singer. The rest of the band is made up off Jody Davis on guitar and Jeff Frankenstein (yes, that really is his last name) on keyboards.

from closest to farthest away:
Duncan Phillips - drums
Jeff Frankenstein - keyboards
Jody Davis - guitar
Michael Tait - lead vocals

Meeting the band is always a bit cool. They were all very gracious but you could tell they had done it zillions of times before. Hubby & I each had our CD signed & then headed in to the concert. We still had about 20 minutes before it started.

I was thrilled at our seats. There is a "catwalk" stage that came off the main stage & we were only two seats away from that & only eight rows from the front. They were excellent seats.

There were three opening bands. The first was this one...

They weren't all that bad, but still new. You can check them out here on YouTube. I had done some investigating before the concert once I knew who the opening bands were. I had listened to a bit of Bread of Stone on YouTube but most of the videos were taken by regular folks at regular concerts. Not exactly great sound or visual quality.

Bread of Stone lead singer

Next up was Me in Motion. I have to say, I did not care for this band at all. I thought they were trying far too hard to get the crowd in to what they were dong. They kept asking us to rock out with them. I was wondering if they had noticed the demographic of the crowd? Although, in talking to a friend's daughter who was there, they loved them the best of all the bands! I guess I'm just too old to get this type of thing now. And quite frankly, their bass player creeped me out some.

I was pretty eager to hear the next band, Seventh Day Slumber. They have a current single out on the radio called Inside Out. They performed this & it was amazing. They also sang I Can Only Imagine which was made popular by MercyMe. Of course, it sounded a bit more "rocking" but excellent.

The lead singer gave his testimony. Oh my. What a testimony! He is a four time convicted felon who took his first line of cocaine at the age of 14. His father left when he was young. He says all he can remember is his father beating his mother. His mom raised him & a brother. She was a Christian so he had heard of this his whole life but turned away from God. When he was in his early 20's he decided to end his life to spare his mother all the heartache. He purposely took an OD of cocaine. His mother came home unexpectedly & found him having a heart attack. On the way to the hospital he gave his life to Christ & he's never been the same since. Just typing that gives me chills.

He's now married with three children. One of his sons was on stage with him during the first few songs taking photos of them as they performed. What an amazing testimony to Christ's everlasting love.

In talking with a friend last night who was also at the concert, we completely agreed. We felt Christ during this performance. He was authentic in his worship. You worshipped with him & God was here. This is why I love going to Christian concerts so much. There is nothing more amazing than to be singing praises to our Lord with so many other Christians.

And finally the Newboys came out. They gave a really great performance, but I have come to realize it was really just that - a performance. There wasn't much worship going on. It was still good, but I would have enjoyed more worship time.

Having said that...did I mention the seats again? Here are the Newboys on their "B stage." I think I was spotted by the drummer.....

They were obviously having a great time. That drummer was hilarious & I did find myself laughing at his faces & such during the concert.

This is how close we were. The young girl in front of me did that for most of the concert. It was slightly annoying for me. I'm only 5'3" tall (with my shoes on & standing on tiptoe - all that to say - I'm short) so I found myself looking through her arms as she kept filming the concert on her phone/camera thing. But that's how close we were. No zoom on the camera this time.

The final shot.

The concert was really fun. We had a great time. Although, we were handed a flier on the way out & Casting Crowns is coming to New England in February 2010. Now that's a concert I really want to go to!

So....what am I giving away?? Well, hubby & I talked about & we really have no need of two Newsboys CD's. I am giving away one of our signed copies of newboys|GO remixed. The following songs are included on the CD:

• Wherever We Go
• Go
• Something Beautiful
• Your Love is Better Than life
• City to City
• The Mission
• Secret Kingdom
• I am Free
• In Wonder
• Let It All Come out
• Gonna Be Alright

Just leave a comment with your favorite worship song (Newsboys or not). I'll do the drawing in one week using random.org to pick the number.